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Trinity Magazine: A Shared Table

A Shared Table

FOR ALMOST NINE DECADES, the Henry Hagen House in Napa, Calif., lay in a state of neglect. Nestled at the foot of Mt. George, the old Victorian manor sat abandoned, presiding over an equally forsaken estate where the old Cedar Knoll Vineyard once operated. Turn-of-the-century farming equipment rusted away, lifeless in the middle of a field of vines. A time capsule of the Great American West, the estate’s future seemed bleak–until the Palmaz family discovered and unearthed its beauty.

New York Times: A Winery Tour with a Taste of Technology

SHIVANI VORA, a travel and lifestyle writer who is a regular contributor to the New York Times, included Palmaz Vineyards and winery’s tour and tasting in her most recent biweekly column, “Today’s Travel Hotel and Tour News.” Vora has also written for publications including the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic Traveler, T Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler and Departures.

Palmaz Vineyards at Naples Winter Wine Festival

In late January, Palmaz Vineyards had the distinct pleasure of participating in this year’s Naples Winter Wine Festival and auction — a gala event in Naples, Florida, that raised more than $11 million for children in need.

Science of Wine: Cover Crops Part II

CERTAIN PLANTS HAVE PARTICULAR TALENTS THAT ADDRESS A VINEYARD’S NEEDS. Generally speaking, a single vineyard can support anywhere from three to six different seeds mixed between the rows, depending on that location’s needs. Here are a few of the more interesting characters we sow, and the talents they possess:

At the table: Just for Spits and Giggles

Next week, the tasting-room table will welcome a new addition: spittoons in the form of charming, quirky tumblers that will make you giggle when you hold one. Last year I had the pleasure to make the acquaintance of Justin Parr, a talented glass artist out of San Antonio, Texas. While enjoying a glass of wine at his studio, I fell in love with the small free-form tumbler he had casually handed me. Not long after, we began developing a line of colored glass containers to use as spittoons in the tasting room.

Science of Wine: Cover Crop Part I

I ONCE HEARD A COMEDIAN SUGGEST that the perfect thing to say to sound like an expert while swirling a glass of wine is “The rains were good that year.…” It got a laugh from everyone in the club that night, but what makes me laugh is the idea that the rains are ever simply considered “good” in any year. In 2013, for instance, there wasn’t enough rain. The 2010 rains were poorly timed. Now, in the winter of 2015-’16, erosion is a concern. Good or bad, we don’t just roll over in the mud and throw our hands up. The committed winemaker plants seeds in the mud — and prays for good weather.

From the posts of: FoodandWine.com

THIS VINEYARD USES SUBMARINE TECHNOLOGY TO FERMENT ITS WINE

DESPITE THE IMPORTANCE of terroir and technique, at its core, winemaking is a relatively simple process. Take the juice of grapes and let it sit until it ferments. In its most basic form, alcohol production can involve doing nothing at all (I know all the people who spend their lives making spontaneously fermented beverages will probably quibble with the notion that they don’t do anything, which is not the point—I’m just saying you can get booze by letting nature do a lot of the heavy lifting). But if you want to make good wine, that’s when more advanced methods come into play, and though some winemakers stand by traditional methods, others constantly look for the latest technology to make each vintage perfect.

Wired Magazine Features Palmaz Wine Technology

Napa’s Fermenting Your Wine With Submarine Technology

IN A TRADITIONAL wine fermentation tank, if the yeasts start acting weird, it might be days before anyone smells or tastes the damage. But at Palmaz Vineyards in Napa, California, staff can detect risk factors before they develop into wine-spoiling problems. That’s thanks to the Fermentation Intelligence Logic Control System, a Minority Report–style setup that tracks the vino at a molecular level, giving the winemaker the information needed to adjust temperatures in different parts of the tank with incredible precision (control over heat = control over yeast). The system is based on a submarine-­industry technology called sono-­densitometry: A tuning-fork-like probe inside each tank measures vibrations 10 times per second, yielding millions of data points about the density of the liquid. That tells you the sugar and alcohol levels, and thus the rate at which fermentation is occurring. Then software slurps up this cloud of data to show, say, temperature variations. That’s projected on the dome of Palmaz’s fermentation cave—a curved display of charts and graphs showing an ancient process in far-out detail. A geotagging system means that the tanks even “know” exactly which person is standing in front of which tank, so the projections a particular winemaker is working on follow them around. It’s like Big Brother for big cabs.

Wine Business Monthly Talks Cap Management

WINE BUSINESS MONTHLY featured Palmaz Vineyards this month in a fascinating article regarding the complex art of cap management during fermentation. Christian Palmaz explains how the winery’s unique thermographic system allows winemakers to understand temperature distribution inside of a fermenter. This research has led to new understandings as to why and when certain aromas and favors extract into wine. The full article can be seen by clicking here.